Canada is in dire need of pilots and aircraft workers. The country needs a total of 3,000 pilots and 55,000 workers in the aviation industry by 2025. Retirements and industry growth are two of the major factors causing the said shortage.

The barriers are making it harder to recruit new workers. The shortage is so terrible that a national strategy has been deemed necessary to address it.

There are, however, many problems faced by the transport industry. One of these is the cost of flight schools, amounting to almost $75,000. The said amount is an employable level, which may even require students to live long distances from home.

On a side note, women and indigenous people are under-represented at all levels in the aviation industry. Even younger pilots are struggling, considering that they have to “pay their dues” at low-paying jobs for northern and rural airlines until they can transfer to bigger aircraft.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau shared, “We’re flying more and more and we will continue to fly more and more… We cannot afford to have labour shortages in the aviation industry.”

Today, the sector has about 154,000 employees. The missing workers will fill up spots, not only as pilots but also in aircraft manufacturing and maintenance.

Robert Donald, executive director of the Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace (CCAA), mentioned, “If we don’t have the workers, the jobs are going offshore and we won’t get them back.”

CCAA Director of Project Management Theresa Davis-Woodhouse shares, “Air travel – it’s going to be double. And you need people to fly those planes and to maintain those planes.”

She said Canada will need 7,300 pilots by 2025. There may be new pilots graduating every year, but as each year progresses, fewer than 1,200 new pilots graduate every year. The worst part is almost half of them are foreign students and only 70 percent of graduating pilots stay in the country to work in the industry.

The scenario, Davis-Woodhouse stressed, will result in a “critical shortage” of 3,000 pilots by 2025. The shortage will most likely be higher if new rules limiting flying hours to reduce pilots’ fatigue will be rolled out.

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